One of the main points was about how kids these days might not even understand that companies have the intention to gain as much information about them as possible. Every "Like" on Facebook is documented, dissected and monitored. The information that kids are giving these companies is priceless and they are giving it away freely. Once this data is obtained, companies create clever ways of getting these kids that "Like" their page to do the grunt work for them. Their customers are their marketers. There is no choice now for companies to sit on the sideline when it comes to new technology. These companies have to be where their customers are. This is how they can gain brand loyalty from the very beginning.
Another topic that was discussed was the fact that there is no more "selling out" because everyone wants his or her 15 minutes of fame. In fact, in the documentary they asked a few kids if they knew what "selling out" means and they didn't know. That blew my mind. Blog buddies, do you know what "selling out" means? I'm curious to know. There were many examples of different types of famous kids based on their social media platform. You can be YouTube famous, Instagram famous, Vine famous, Twitter famous, etc. Who knew there were so many opportunities to be famous. There were different examples of how people got to fame, for example, one kid got YouTube famous just for giving his opinion while another kid got YouTube famous from skateboard tricks and then switched to pranks and stupid actions. They get company sponsorship because they have such a large following. Companies know that famous people influence others so they ask these social media famous kids to promote their product, but the fans can always tell when the promotion is being forced. The company (and the star) is instantly gratified when the star gets "Likes" on their social media.
I didn't realize how important "Likes" on Facebook, Instagram, etc. are to some people. It made me think of that song "Selfie" when one of the lines says, "I only got 10 likes in the last five minutes / Do you think I should take it down?" This concept also made me reflect to see if I could pinpoint this type of thing happening in my own life. Then I remembered encountering someone that said, "No offense but that's not Instagram worthy" after we just finished taking a photo together. I remember feeling slightly offended and wondering what was so bad about the photo and when I asked why, the person said that they wouldn't get enough "Likes." I didn't realize until I saw this documentary that there is a value system for "Likes" and some people will never be satisfied with the amount of "Likes" they receive.
This documentary actually makes an interesting comparison to the concept of "The Hunger Games" movie that, just like the game in the movie, social media is ripping people apart and just like in the movie, it's every man for himself. I thought it was an interesting perspective and I do not even give the analogy justice. You have to watch the documentary for yourself. It is also on Netflix if you have a Netflix account. I'm curious to know where you stand on the topic of "Likes" and how important they may or may not be. Let me know!